


Daylilies

by powderblew



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Post-War, SO MUCH FLUFF, baby!minato, canon-divergent, discord is a new type of hell, he's a dumb genius but we love him anyway, he's going to troll konoha for maximum damage, he's just lucky his instincts and his heart are telling him the same thing, if there are plotholes it will be exPLAINED, is it a slow burn? idk, jutsu and equations gone wrong, minato and his stupid jutsus, minato knows that a good nin always trusts their instincts, more tags to add, naruto wants more attention, sakura's maternal instincts go haywire, sasuke is not amused, this is to heal the soul okay, why are his techniques so long, wtf can't he be normal, you know development and all that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:22:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25887292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/powderblew/pseuds/powderblew
Summary: Sakura needs both hands to list off her village idiots. —Minato/Sakura
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Namikaze Minato
Comments: 49
Kudos: 291





	1. wild blue yonder

One of Minato’s fault lay on the side of simpler things.

Jiraiya-sama had praised him for his mind, the swift, cunning, and sharp side of intellect. He soaked up any type of visual stimuli with the ease of a sponge; information, scrolls, ninjutsu equations, and chakra theory. There has been if anything, a genius every twenty years, and so Jiraiya-sama liked to dote on his favorite student.

Minato, unfortunately, is not the best at using fūinjutsu. He’s mediocre at best, something Kushina had laughed at him when they were kids in chakra theory class. Which, to him at least, was unfair because Kushina came from the _Uzumaki_ clan. They were fūinjutsu _masters._

At least he could rewrite the _hiraishin_ into three kanji lettering, that had to count for _something._

Other than that, his studies – the compulsive behavior of sleeping in libraries while rollcall was being observed in Jounin HQ had put him in unnecessary hot water with Danzo – Jiraiya-sama had covered for him, fortunately. But Minato lives and breathes for knowledge, power, and above all truth.

He has been working on this one particular jutsu. It’s to advance his _hiraishin_ technique to cut down the amount of chakra usage and use lightning – the golden spark of electricity burns hotter than say the blue of a chidori – to sub in the empty space of his once presence. It sounds simple enough, he thinks.

It can’t be much more than a simple rerouting of chakra and displacement equation. He uses blueberry ink to smear his kanji lettering and line the summoning circle. Once he’s put the equation in place, he has to plug in the function commands for the yang energy and then annotate the spiritual energy formatting.

Minato then walks over to grab another candle across the cabinet from the library. He places the candle on the other side of the scroll so he has more light to work with. Then he finally presses his hand against the summoning seal and pushes his chakra into the sealing scroll.

And Minato’s world shifts off its axis.

.

It takes Minato about ten minutes.

_Ten minutes._

Ten minutes to come to the conclusion that he is, now in fact, in the body of his five-year-old self. He knows this when he sees the newly healed scar against the protruding bone of his ankle – he had stumbled down the stairs leaving his parent’s bakery one morning, his ankle scratching against the rough of the cobblestone and one of his classmates that had started healing ninjutsu fixed it for him – and brushes the puckered wound gingerly.

His adult clothes don’t fit him anymore.

Minato’s pants fit around his ankles and his shinobi sweater hangs off his shoulder, the edges of his shirt hitting the tops of his knees like a long dress. His headband slides from his forehead and slings around his neck. He quickly shoves the sleeves of his shirt upwards, desperately seeking his hands, and then stares at his small stature from the spare kunai on the floor.

He wonders at his own self-control.

Should he be _concerned_ or should he be _hysterical?_

Minato isn’t entirely sure.

The anxiety bubbles up inside him, tightening into a fist in the pits of his stomach and it settles there; waiting.

He can fix it.

He _knows_ he can fix it.

He smiles tremulously at nothing in particular, he makes a move to grab his brush and trips around the pants that trap his ankles. His hands flail in an effort to cushion his fall, but he plummets on his equation, a fingertip nicking at the top of the spare kunai, and the blood smears across the scroll.

Minato disappears before his next breath.

.

Whirlpool, is almost like the books.

It’s a city of ruins. Buildings, broken glass, red cobblestone, damaged marble and shattered silver. There are pieces of crystal—a type of glass perhaps, but strong enough to withstand a high amount of heat. Sakura knows this when she picks up a shard, the red of the glass burning like a flame against the sky. It glints, eerily, and hums with _something._

Perhaps she’s hallucinating, perhaps there’s chakra somewhere in the glass itself or maybe she’s lost her fucking _mind_ from the three all-nighters she’s pulled in the past three consecutive days—which was mostly her and Ino rewriting her policy and code of conduct.

She was _supposed_ to go over the legal and financial aspects of her hospital with a _lawyer_ , but to find one on such short notice was the catch. Ino could’ve done it. She could’ve batted those robin-blue eyes of hers and tossed her hair, but she didn’t because she’s had her hands full with her new team.

Sakura couldn’t blame her.

“Naruto!” Sakura calls out from the side of what could be the building to a bank, “Did you find anything?”

Naruto groans from a broken fountain, “I found some books. I can’t read it.”

“I _know_ you can read, dobe,” Sasuke points out from the other side of the fountain and swings a broken fan down his first knuckle.

Sai stares at the last Uchiha with something like confusion, “Dickless is right. Whirlpool has their own dialect, I thought you passed the academy.”

Sakura bites back a laugh when Sasuke scowls at that and clears her throat, “We can always get a translator, Naruto. Shikamaru might be able to help with that or at least have some references.”

The blonde perks up at that, “Really? There’s barely any information on Uzushiogakure.”

“Your entire heritage was classified,” Sasuke snorts and glances at the seal on the paper fan, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Konoha decided to keep a city of ruins from breaching the textbook.”

She presses her lips together.

Sasuke isn’t technically wrong, but that doesn’t mean he’s right either. Konoha has kept secrets that could probably take a lifetime to uncover, as much as she wants to jump to defend her country, her village, she knows just as well as the rest of the world, Konoha isn’t clean and there would be sins that not even she _or_ Naruto could begin to correct.

Still, that doesn’t mean she is willing to listen to this from _Sasuke_ of all people.

Sakura shakes her head; there are some things she just would _never_ get used to.

“Maybe try the shrine,” she decides to change the subject before her morals could jump in defense. “Shrines are highly protected because they’re made from strong materials. It’s why they’re so expensive to develop. Something about piety and worship screams expensive.”

Sai almost snickers.

“There’s a temple by the water,” Naruto suddenly remembers and stands up, “Something about the nine-tails. Maybe there would be some statues?”

“Artifacts,” Sai corrects.

Sakura rolls her eyes and gives him a small grin, “Just take a look, I’m going to search the village square.”

“We were just in the village square,” Sasuke gives her a look.

She bites the inside of her cheek, “We were in town center, not the square.”

“What’s the difference?”

Sakura sighs.

And Sai opens his mouth to educate the socially and emotionally-recluse Uchiha.

.

Sakura decides to give the town square a runaround. She couldn’t decipher most of the buildings due to the damage that Whirlpool had acquired during the attack, but some shops did hold up. A school still held, with an open roof and broken windows. Next to the alleyway, another building lay untouched—with traditional architecture and stone archways.

There is greenery, vines, orchids blooming in between the cracks of the archway. Fortunately, or unfortunately for the people that once lived here, there is no door and so, she walks directly into the fray.

The lighting is terrible, but once Sakura moves a nearby curtain, that’s when she feels him—she _feels_ him before she sees him and that causes her muscles to lock up in shock.

.

Minato watches her warily.

The sun highlights her pink hair like a flame, licks of rose and sunset brush the outer edges of her head. He tightens his hand in reflex over his scroll, her green eyes almost _glow_ in the dark of the building and she walks closer to him. He doesn’t sense any malicious chakra or energy at least, and she’s wearing a Konoha headband.

He relaxes almost immediately.

Sakura’s maternal instincts come out before she could stop it.

“Are—” she clears her throat and crouches down slowly. She looks at his bloody hand pointedly, “—Is it alright if I heal you?”

He frowns and shifts backward in hesitation

Emerald orbs blink prettily and raises her hands up, “It’s alright, I won’t hurt you! I’m a doctor, see?”

She summons medical chakra, seafoam and mint cover her palm.

Minato blinks at her slowly and tilts his head. He had been tossed into the library post-summon. He had been looking for more information when he had taken in his surroundings and deemed it safe enough for him to scavenge.

“You’re bleeding,” she tells him softly and he swallows his thoughts, “Let me help you, _please._ ”

The blonde walks over to her, slowly, he keeps his scroll close to him and offers his palm out to her. She presses her fingertips over his wrist, the medicinal chakra slowly seeps into his skin, mending the broken tissue and disinfects the wound gently—sluggishly, almost like she doesn’t want to _hurt_ him any more than necessary.

This medic’s chakra—her entire healing process is something Minato had never _experienced_ before. For one, her chakra is _warm,_ not icy cold like Tsunade-sama who had taken great joy in pricking him with her frosty fingers every time his experimental jutsu hits a wall and attacks him. It settles into his skin like warm water, encasing his blood, his veins, his nerves, and his flesh with a blanket of heat.

Minato is almost startled by how _gentle_ her hands are and how earnest she is in her healing process, but it ends too soon and he misses it already.

“What are you doing here?” she whispers with concern once he’s close enough for her to inspect, green eyes meld into sea-foam and she runs a thumb against the sides of his knuckles, “Are you alone?”

He nods slowly.

“Can you speak?” she asks suddenly, her fingers rummage her pack, and looks for some dried rice-cakes. She hands it to him, grabs his shoulders, pulls her closer to him, and fires off with rapid questions, “When was the last time you ate? Did you eat? Are you hurt anywhere else? Are there any bad nin here? Did you drink any water?”

Minato almost grins at the words _bad nin._

Almost as if he was a child—

—child.

He _is_ a _child._

He groans internally.

.

“He—He,” Sasuke honest to the Gods above, stammers, “He looks like _Naruto._ ”

Sakura blinks and shifts the child in her arms, “Does he?”

It had taken no more than five minutes for Sakura to coax the child in her arms. She had lifted him, he wrapped his legs around her waist and locked his arms around her neck. She carried him outside, but the blonde was intent on burying his head into to crook of her nape. He didn’t even look up when the fresh air brushes his wild, blonde hair and her hands went underneath his thighs.

“He has _blonde_ hair, Sakura,” the Uchiha deadpans and points to the kid that’s currently attached to his pink-haired teammate.

“ _Ino_ has blonde hair, does that mean she looks like Naruto?”

“Sakura—”

“Sakura-chan!” Naruto calls out and holds out a banner behind his head. He uses shunshin to appear in front of her and then blinks. He points to the toddler in the medic’s arms and looks at Sasuke with a frown, “Who’s the kid?”

“I tried asking for his name, but he wouldn’t speak,” Sakura replies with obvious concern and her eyes glisten jade. “I think he’s in shock.”

Sai frowns, “Can he walk?”

“He can, but he looks so _scared,_ ” she answers and looks at the ruffle of yellow in front of her, “I think he was abandoned.”

Naruto’s heart squeezes in sympathy, even Sasuke looks apologetic, but then scrunches his nose, “We can take him to the orphanage.”

“Sasuke,” Sakura snaps in irritation and narrows her brows, “You saw how those people treated Naruto when he was a kid or at least heard about it. You’re out of your mind if you think I’m going to leave him in an orphanage.”

Minato tightens his arms around her neck.

“Kakashi-sensei won’t mind, I think.”

The sound of Kakashi’s name causes him to still, his mouth to part against her shoulder and his thoughts decide to take a pace of their own. There are too many variables for him to calculate on account that he hasn’t _completely_ lost his mind and that this is a very bad fever dream, but the sound of his student’s name confirms his instinct about her.

Minato wonders, vaguely, if this was his fight or flight instinct coupled with the nature vs. nurture concept. His chakra, is receptive towards her, which demonstrates his own body’s fondness for her—her chakra at least. However, if his own body is accepting her form, his brain would soon follow he thinks. Perhaps this might be the side effects of her healing chakra, he isn’t too entirely sure.

Nevertheless if they—she, somehow knows Kakashi – sensei or not – and is a Konoha shinobi, he has no choice but to follow her.

Wherever Sakura goes.

Minato thinks it’s best, that until he figures out how to get back into his normal body, that he pretends to be a child, it lowers his suspicion as an enemy ninja, it will lull his enemies into a false sense of security, gives him the advantage and well, he’s forgotten what it’s like to be a kid.

Because he grew up during violence, during war and bloodshed, it’s the only thing he has known until he had reached the academy where there was an explanation for the madness.

It’s not like this is forever, it’s a temporary comfort—short-term insanity if Jiraiya-sama had to describe it.

She pats his downy, feathery blonde head soothingly when she feels him tense up and he nuzzles her neck on instinct rather than deliberately. He says, “Kaito.”

Sakura blinks and looks down, “Did you say something?”

Minato sits up, arches his back, she immediately presses her forearm up his spine to support his sudden shift in weight and he looks up at her with big, blue, ocean eyes and she is startled by the varying shades of blue that trail down to his pupil. He repeats his name for her and smiles, “Kaito, my name is Kaito.”

.

When Minato tells her his name, his fake name, he looks directly into her eyes and his brain short-circuits at the sight of _Sakura._

Minato first meets Sakura in the abandoned Whirlpool bookstore – how he ends up there is a question he doesn’t think he’ll find the answer to – in dim lighting, with a halo of light surrounding the blush of her hair and emerald orbs that glow in the dark. She’s taller than him, for obvious reasons and her chakra bleeds into sealight when she heals.

Sakura in the sunlight is almost heart-stopping.

Her eyes are a true emerald he thinks, the dips in sea-foam at the edges, the aqua and silver flecks root him for a moment. Her eyelashes, a soft, pearly pink, and the small barely-nothing beauty mark under her right eye is nothing but adorable. He blinks slowly, eyes tracing over the slope of her nose, the angles of her cheekbones, the peonies of her lips, and the satin of her skin.

The sun shrouds over like a nimbus, cream, and daffodil outline her figure and her hair—hair that is _pink._

That jutsu has done _something_ to him because his first thought should’ve been: her hair is _pink._

A soft pastel, sweet and delicate. Gentle and feminine, silk, and light. He could count the shades of pink in her hair for hours, each strand a different tint of carnation and he blinks again.

But it’s the Yin-seal on her forehead that warns him that she is sweet as she is dangerous.

“Kaito?” Sakura repeats the name slowly, almost in question.

Minato nods and smiles shyly.

“Kaito,” she rolls the word on her tongue slowly and giggles, “It’s cute.”

His smile grows, stupidly, more bashful, and more enamored than the first.

“Do you have any parents, Kaito?” Sai cuts the moment with the first crack of his monotonous voice.

Minato freezes and stumbles on his own tongue.

Emerald eyes crackle and she narrows them at her teammate. She hisses, “ _Sai!_ What did I teach you about empathy?”

“That it’s a concept that is referred to cognitive and emotional reactions of an individual to the observed experiences of another,” he pauses and thinks back, “And that it increases the likelihood of compassion and practices morality.” 

“And what about the application part?” Sakura waits patiently.

Sai grimaces at his blunder and tries to smooth it over with another question, “Are you all alone, Kaito?”

She almost beams; _progress._

Minato shakes his head.

Naruto sighs.

.

Sasuke tries to talk her out of it, but Sakura would not listen to reason. He scowls ferociously, “What is _with_ you and picking up strays? Do you heal everything that looks broken to you?”

“I picked up _you_ , didn’t I?” Sakura scoffs.

“…”

.

There is a grain of truth to that statement. She doesn’t want to admit to it as much as her team wants to deny it.

But Sakura’s team is full of lost boys.

She looks down at Minato who’s resting against her shoulder.

And she’s picked up another one.

.

Twenty minutes later, it’s _Naruto_ that tries to talk her out of it.

“Naruto,” Sakura has _had_ it with her team trying to tell _her_ what to do. They’re still genin after all if she really _wants_ to, she could always pull rank and Sai would back her up on her decision _one hundred percent_. Her fingers twist in Kaito’s hair and she strokes his scalp soothingly.

Her child purrs against her shoulder.

She stomps her foot on the ground and the earth shakes.

Minato’s eyes widen at the destruction that surrounds her in disbelief.

“I’m taking him home, Naruto,” Sakura declares with absolution and tightens her grip onto him. “ _He’s mine_.”


	2. canary

Kakashi stares at the blonde toddler with wide eyes.

The blonde toddler stares back at him.

Sakura stares at her teammates and Shikamaru wants to drown himself in his coffee.

The thing is, with picking up children from different villages or countries, especially _abandoned_ children, is that they don’t have a _return to sender_ tag. Most children have parents – the majority of them at least – picking up abandoned children, is always something to be wary about, in concerns to immigration, health-related issues and well, politics.

However, Sakura is a special case.

Because she’s a doctor and she handles nearly _everything_ inside the village _._

“Sakura,” Kakashi starts off uncertainly because he doesn’t know how to approach this situation any more than he knows how to tell her _no_. He crosses fingers and leans against the desk. That child looks an awfully like his teacher, he glances over at Naruto who perhaps, was maybe thinking the same thing. He asks gently, “Did you really pick him up from Whirlpool?”

Sakura’s green eyes brighten, her mouth curls at the edges and the Rokudaime almost groans with _despair._ If anything, Tsunade-sama had taught Sakura the powers of mass manipulation and persuasion with just the quirk of her lips and quick flutter of her dark lashes; _diabolical_ really. He glances at his other two students who grimace on demand and look _everywhere_ but at her.

“Kakashi-sensei,” she begins and brings her hand to rest on the child’s head, “He was _bleeding_ when I saw him and didn’t even _care_ that he was bleeding. He didn’t speak for two hours until I told him I would get him out of there!”

“Sakura-chan,” he sighs and crosses his arms underneath his chest. “You can’t pick a kid up like a stray puppy.”

Sakura narrows her green eyes at him warningly and he can practically _see_ the chakra flicker from her fists. She stresses with clenched teeth, “Kakashi—” she leaves out his honorific so he knows that he’s treading a fine line, “I am a _doctor._ ”

Kakashi really does groan this time and stares at the kid—the kid who is staring at him with wide eyes and gripping Sakura’s skirt like it’s his life-line.

“Can’t you—?” Naruto interjects with a sour face and glares, “We tried to tell her to put him back, Kakashi-sensei.”

Shikamaru looks at him in disbelief and scowls, “Naruto, you grew up in an _orphanage._ ”

Kakashi sighs.

.

Minato cannot believe his own two eyes.

On top of his hysterical _what-the-fuck_ just happened crisis, his nausea because Sakura somehow managed to make the running _back-to-the-village_ ride bumpy and him realizing that he’s not exactly in the _same_ village anymore, but—

—Kakashi’s _Hokage?_

Perhaps it’s the shock. Minato can wrack his brains for some sort of explanation because it looks like – according to the faces on the Hokage Mountain – that he’s what? Twenty years into the future? Or something? His scroll, fortunately, is still in his hand and he will have to look at his notes _later,_ because how in the _hell_ did he end up here?

He must’ve done _something_ wrong.

He wants to scratch his brain with a toothpick; how did _that_ happen?

Kakashi can’t even take care of his plants, but he’s going to run a _village_?

“So you’re going to make him your ward?” Kakashi decides to ask the question that everyone is dying to know.

Sakura thinks about it, “Yes,” then she nods again and looks at Kaito who is holding onto her leg, “Yes.”

“It’ll be good practice for Sasuke,” Sai comments with a smile.

Shikamaru tosses his paperweight at him.

And Sakura scowls.

.

In hindsight, it probably could’ve been a lot worse, Sakura thinks.

She did make this decision pretty quickly—callously. But it’s not like she’s going to have any _regrets._ There was a child, who was injured, starving, abandoned in a deserted village who needed her help and once she looked into those big blue eyes she knew that he was _it._

Sakura couldn’t just leave him; her conscience wouldn’t allow her to.

She couldn’t just pick him up, heal him, and leave him alone—it would’ve _gnawed_ at her from the inside.

“Sakura-chan,” Minato breaks her out of her thoughts, he squeezes her hand and asks, “Where are we going?”

“The hospital,” Sakura replies instantaneously and then tugs him closer to her legs, “We’re going to give you a physical—er, a check-up. Just to make sure you’re healthy.”

“Are you going to be cond—doing the check-ups?” he asks innocuously and silently curses his loose tongue. He’s supposed to be a child and children do not have an extensive vocabulary.

She shakes her head, “No, my shishou is. Don’t worry, she’s one of the greatest medical shinobi in the _world._ If there’s anything wrong with—”

“—Sakura! What’s this I hear about you having a ward?” Tsunade stops short when she sees the mop of blonde hair attached to her apprentice. She blinks rapidly for a few moments, her mouth parts open in disbelief and she points to the child clinging onto her student’s skirt but then—

—then the little _shit_ has the nerve to bring a finger up to his lips in a _shushing_ motion.

Tsunade nearly puts her fist into the wall at the offensive gesture.

.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t tell anyone who you are?” Tsunade demands once Sakura promises him that she’ll be in the waiting room while her master completes her evaluation of him.

“Because you could mess up the timeline,” Minato smiles and then hops onto the table, “Tsunade-sama.”

Her eyebrow twitches in annoyance and grabs her clipboard, “Explain. Before I bash your head with this clipboard.”

“Sakura will not be pleased,” he replies casually and glances at the door with a small smile, “She’s pretty amazing, your apprentice.”

“I know,” Tsunade says obviously, “She wouldn’t be my apprentice if she wasn’t.”

“I was working on some additives for the hiraishin, to customize it basically and I think my chakra input was too diverse? I ended up turning myself into a five-year-old,” Minato explains.

“The aging jutsu is essentially a summoning jutsu redirected into another form of medical chakra,” she muses, “If you didn’t put enough chakra into the equation or too little there would be side effects. The branches of it differ. Do you have the scroll?”

He hands her his blood-stained scroll that he kept tight in his right fist.

Tsunade opens the scroll, studies it for a few moments, ravels it back up, and smacks him with it over the back of his head. She ignores his yelp of pain and scowls, “For a genius, you’re pretty stupid. Anyone with _eyes_ can see you wrote the seal backward.”

“I did _not_ write the seal backward,” he frowns and rubs the back of his head, “I’m not an idiot.”

“Then you can’t read,” Tsunade opens the scroll and points to the badly written kanji, “Explain _this_.”

The _seal_ isn’t backward, but the scroll is and the only explanation for that is when he went to get the candle from the opposite side of the room, he drew the seal _without_ going back to his original placement, therefore, the seal is considered _backward._ Still, he replies, “I wrote it backwards, I get it.”

“How did you end up twenty-two years into the future anyway?” she demands with mild disbelief, “You can’t be shot into the future just like _that._ Did you use your blood as an offering or something?”

“I tripped on the paper,” Minato says slowly, “And my finger got caught on a kunai.”

Tsunade looks at the scroll again, “And you smeared half of the lettering, you also found the scroll with yin chakra during that time. Did you put it underneath?”

He pauses and hesitates, “Maybe?”

She smacks him with scroll again and glares, “Minato you just _started_ learning fūinjutsu! You’re not _supposed_ to put yin chakra with seals because it messes up with the placement in the summoning realm; you’re lucky you’re not _stuck_ there.”

Minato blanches.

“And you were using the hiraishin, which, according to Tobi-jii, was basically a space-time ninjutsu that was _simplified_ for what? _Time travel_ ,” Tsunade could _throttle_ him, but manages to crack her clipboard instead.

“Are you saying I undid the hiraishin?” he asks with confusion.

“I’m saying you _unsimplified_ it,”

“By what? Smearing the formula?”

Minato has duck to avoid being slammed with the broken pieces of the clipboard.

.

“How is Kaito, Tsunade-sama?” Sakura asks when her shishou opens the door to the examination room. She takes a seat next to Minato on the table and ruffles his hair. She looks over at her teacher expectantly, “No illnesses? Underweight? Malnutri—”

“—he’s fine, Sakura,” Tsunade rolls her eyes and pokes her apprentice against her Yin seal. She glares at the little boy on her table, “I gave him all his vaccines and measured him up. His mental state is fine. He doesn’t remember much anyway, could be from the trauma, but he might just be _stupid._ It’s too soon to tell.”

“Tsunade-shishou!” her apprentice scolds her and frowns.

The Fifth shrugs and crosses her arms underneath her chest, “He’s fine Sakura. His brain isn’t very developed so we’re going to skip that mental probe that I _know_ Ibiki is itching to put him in. Other than that, he’s doing fine.”

“You said fine at least three times, Tsunade-shishou,” Sakura points out suspiciously and then glances at Minato who looks up at her with wide, blue eyes, “Are you sure he’s okay?”

“He’s _fine,_ Sakura,” Tsunade scowls and grumbles underneath her breath as she leaves the examination room, “He’s just a fucking _brat._ ”

.

“I was going to take you to get ramen, but I’m afraid you’re going to end up acting like Naruto,” Sakura sniffs and gives him another piece of grilled meat, “Barbecue is relatively healthy. I mean it’s grilled vegetables and meat—Kaito! Slow down!”

Minato looks at her with puffed cheeks and ocean-colored orbs. He chews quickly and swallows roughly.

She hands him a cup of water and frowns, “Here drink, you can’t eat so fast or you’re going to choke.”

“Sorry, Sakura-chan,” Minato says after two big gulps and smiles shyly, “I was just hungry.”

Sakura’s emerald-colored orbs dim at that and she sighs so sadly that the blonde almost flinches at the weary sound, “I should’ve gotten you food first. I’m already failing as your caretaker.”

His shoulders droop at that and then he racks his brain for something that he could say that would placate her own self-depreciation and his blunder on his part. His small hand covers her knuckles and squeezes, “It’s okay, Sakura-chan. I was more tired than hungry.”

Minato almost slaps himself at his syntax—he’s _five,_ he’s not _supposed_ to have proper grammar and correct sentence structure.

“I should’ve let you sleep at home then—Kaito?” Sakura cuts off her groan when she sees him jump down from his chair and walk around the table as quick as a five-year-old could.

Minato crawls onto the bench next to her, grabs onto her elbow, and nuzzles her forearm. He looks at her with sapphire eyes and pouts, “Please don’t be sad, Sakura-chan. I don’t like it when you’re sad.”

Sakura blinks at him, he takes it as a sign to snuggle up closer to her, grab a piece of grilled meat with his chopsticks and feed her, “You eat too. So we can take nap.”

Minato nods internally; yes, this is what a five-year-old sounds like.

At least, this is what _he_ thinks sounds like a five-year-old.

He doesn’t expect Sakura to laugh at him, peck his forehead and accept his offering in that order.

Minato most certainly doesn’t expect the flush that warms his cheeks.

.

“Sakura-chan,” Naruto looks over at his box of old clothes, puts them on her table, and sighs, “Here, these are what I saved over the years. I don’t have much, I was planning on saving these, in case…I ever have kids.”

Sakura couldn’t help the bubble of elation that escapes her chest at that and pinches his cheeks pretentiously. Her eyes glitter and she beams, “That’s _adorable_ Naruto. I’m sure Kaito will take care of them. This is just temporary, I didn’t have enough time to get him things, clothes being one of them and—he’ll take good care of them Naruto. I _promise._ ”

“Okay— _okay,_ just let _go,_ ” her teammate’s protest blends into a whine as the medical ninja releases his cheeks and gives him a quick peck on the jaw.

Minato frowns from the sofa.

“Alright, Sakura-chan,” Naruto rubs his face for a good twenty seconds and looks over at the toddler sitting on her couch. Then he looks back at his teammate, “Uh, do you want me to give him a bath, Sakura-chan?”

Sakura stares at him in question and then just as she’s about to open her mouth—

“—no!” Minato jumps off the couch, runs over to his caretaker, and hugs her around the knee. “I want Sakura-chan to give me a bath!”

There is no way, on God’s _green earth,_ will Minato, ever let _anyone_ other than Sakura _bathe_ him, while he’s still stuck in this form.

Naruto sighs all patronizing – this grates the toddler’s nerves – then he bends down and gives him one of Sai’s fake smiles, “Kaito, you’re a nasty little boy and Sakura-chan is a sweet, kind, _angel_ and I can’t let a—”

Sakura whacks Naruto over the head and hisses, “What the _hell_ are you telling Kai? He’s a kid, Naruto.”

“He just wants you to take a bath _with_ him!” he winces, stands up and rubs the back of his head, “He’s a pervy little boy!”

“And you would know that, wouldn’t you?” she scowls and picks up Kaito. He nuzzles his face into the crook of her neck and squeezes her. “Kaito is a sweetheart. I’m not going to stand here and listen to you insult him.”

Naruto frowns, “You know that I don’t mean it like that, Sakura-chan.”

“Then how did you mean it?” Sakura demands and rubs Minato on his back absently.

“I’m just looking out for you,” he sighs and looks at her, “Boys are hard to take care of, especially at this age. I would know, I was like him too.”

“You were also spray-painting buildings, dropping smoke bombs in classrooms and playing pranks all over the village,” she counters back and exhales, “I know you mean well, Naruto, but I can handle this. I’m a doctor and have enough credentials—”

“I know. You’re the best medical ninja in the world—”

“—really?” Minato exclaims excitedly and looks at her with those _blue_ eyes of his. She wonders if she’s cursed with a weakness towards sea-colored irises, they seem to be her undoing—she can’t even say no to _Naruto_ when he asks for ramen.

But Kaito’s eyes are of an ocean and Naruto’s are of the sky, but they are complete opposites.

Because Sakura could get sucked into Kaito’s gaze and those oceans will keep her captive.

“I guess you can say that,” Sakura smiles sheepishly and Kaito looks at her in awe.

“You’re so cool, Sakura-chan,” Minato kisses her on her cheek noisily and then smiles wickedly at Naruto.

Naruto bristles.

**Author's Note:**

> Join the multi-sakura discord!!! Because this is how this fic came to be lmao.  
> https://discord.gg/Bq6h4Vr


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